Pumpkin
Pumpkin is an NPC from the Temphere Campaign universe, and an ally (albeit a very unenthused one) of the Island Party. He is a homunculus, a construct creature bonded to the mind of the mage that created it. Pumpkin's bonded mage was Zora Helder, with whom he could speak telepathically, and to whose life he was tied. He assisted the party in saving Zora and her wife Makaria during their first adventure, and presumably remains with the Helders to this day. History First Adventure The party found Pumpkin not long after they found the unconscious and poisoned Helders, and learned his name from Zora's diary. After the party managed to get the Helders to a safer place than the beach, Pumpkin emphatically indicated that he wanted them to follow him, eventually leading them through the forest and to Athelia's cabin. The tiefling wizard was initially very skeptical of the party, and they of her, until Pumpkin got tired of the verbal fencing between them. He irritably got Athelia's attention to make it clear that the group was here at his prompting and thaw her ice a bit. After getting Zora and Makaria to Athelia's cabin and learning her history, Pumpkin decided it was time to get going again and started scratching at the cabin door to indicate as much. Kindrin asked if he needed to go out (presumably in the way a dog would when scratching a door) and Pumpkin was supremely offended. Athelia explained to the party that he was fully sapient, not an animal, and that even if he couldn't speak he understood every language Zora did- including Common. The party abashedly apologized to the homunculus, who seemed to accept it before resuming his indications that they needed to get moving. Athelia guessed Pumpkin wanted them to travel to Zora and Makaria's workshop on Rose Bay Island, and set about leading the party to her boat so they could do just that. Pumpkin took up residence in Athelia's backpack. The homunculus was a fairly unobtrusive passenger for a while, until Athelia fell off of a tightrope into a river with Pumpkin still in her pack. Pumpkin transferred to another, less wet pack, but was noticeably more lethargic as he did so. Athelia guessed that, being bonded to Zora, it was possible he was weakening as she did. Indeed, by the time the party got to the workshop Pumpkin was so weak that he seemed to be barely conscious. The adventurers wrapped him up in a blanket and set him in front of a fire in the workshop to warm up, where he remained for the rest of the adventure. Personality During his time with the party, Pumpkin came across as rather grumpy and impatient. Lacking the ability to speak with the party verbally and with his bonded mage unconscious and unable to relay his thoughts, the homunculus was forced to resort to crude sign language and mime to communicate. This lead the party to misjudge just how intelligent he was, treating him like a very smart pet animal rather than a thinking, reasoning creature until Athelia corrected them, which probably contributed to no small amount of his exasperation with them. He seems to be given to sarcasm, as at times he would act out his miming with exaggeratedly slow, wide gestures, like someone might speak slowly to insinuate someone is being dense. Trivia * Pumpkin has wings, but was never seen to fly with them during the story- though it's possible he was either too weak to do so, or trying not to get too far ahead of the party. * The party forgot to take Pumpkin with them when they left the workshop, so presumably he was still there when they cured Zora and Makaria. One can only imagine he was Not Amused About It. * As a construct Pumpkin has no anatomical sex, but is referred to with masculine pronouns and Tiger implied he has a male or at least masculine gender identity. Category:Temphere Characters Category:Temphere NPCs